Abstract
Postoperative infections are the most common complications faced by surgeons after implant surgery. To address this issue, an emerging and promising approach is to develop antimicrobial coatings using antibiotic substitutes. We investigated the use of biopolymers (polycationic homopolypeptides) to build microscale coatings on medical devices with impressive antibacterial properties against Gram positive, Gram negative and resistant bacteria. An extension of this work was done by designing hydrogels instead of coatings, based on similar homopolypeptides and depicting also antiviral properties.

Biosketch
The INSERM /Université de Strasbourg UMR_S 1121‐Biomaterials and Bioengineering located in Strasbourg is a world-leading research lab in the design of coatings and materials for biomedical applications. Dr. Philippe Lavalle, Research Director at Inserm and Director of the lab has applied for 10 patents and published more than 150 peer review publications. He was coordinator of National and European project and also co-founder of 2 companies, SPARTHA Medical and ALBUPAD.